A joyous celebration of music, spoken word and visuals, The Langston Hughes Project is performed by the impressively versatile Dr. Ron McCurdy (as narrator and on trumpet) and his talented group of musicians (on piano, bass and drums) who make heads bob, fingers snap and feet tap throughout.

This soundtrack of the 60s has a message that resonates as strongly today as ever.

The Langston Hughes Project is a multimedia concert performance of Langston Hughes’s kaleidoscopic jazz poem suite Ask Your Mama which was his homage in verse and music to the struggle for artistic and social freedom at home and abroad at the beginning of the 1960s. It is a twelve-part epic poem which was scored with musical cues drawn from blues and Dixieland, gospel songs, boogie woogie, bebop and progressive jazz, Latin “cha cha” and Afro-Cuban mambo music, German lieder, Jewish liturgy, West Indian calypso, and African drumming — a creative masterwork left unperformed at the time of his death in 1967.

Ron McCurdy’s LANGSTON HUGHES PROJECT will play the White Plains Performing Arts Center on Saturday, November 18 at 8:00 pm.White Plains Performing Arts Center is located on the third level of City Center off Mamaroneck Avenue and Main Street in downtown White Plains, minutes from the White Plains Metro North Station. Tickets start at $27. For tickets visit the theatre box office Monday–Friday (11am-6pm), purchase the tickets online at

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Yonkers Officials and Simone Development Celebrate Grand Opening of The Taco Project at the Boyce Thompson Center

Yonkers City officials joined with Simone Development Companies and co-owners of the Taco Project to celebrate the official grand opening of the new restaurant at the Boyce Thompson Center. Attending the August 29th ceremony were, from left, Symra Brandon, representing State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins; Yonkers Councilman Michael Sabatino; Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano; Taco Project co-owner Nick Mesce; Taco Project co-owner Sebastian Aliberti; William Schneider, Commissioner for the Department of Housing and Buildings; Wilson Kimball, Commissioner for the Department of Planning and Development; and Guy Leibler, President of Simone Healthcare Development.

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Iona College Announces Plans for Restaurant, Market on North Avenue

SAGE Café Delivers on a Promise to Community

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (2017) – Demonstrating its continued support to the New Rochelle community and the ongoing revitalization of the North Avenue corridor, Iona College today announced plans for a community restaurant and market on North Avenue.

Called SAGE Café, the proposed restaurant and market will serve the needs for both Iona students and the broader community, and will be located in taxable commercial space on the ground floor of the newly built seven-story mixed-use facility located at 690 North Avenue — the former site of the Mirage Diner.

The announcement delivers on a commitment the College made when it purchased the Mirage Diner in 2014 and follows several significant North Avenue improvement efforts supported by the College, including North Avenue land acquisitions, roadway improvements and a storefront enhancement program.

“Iona College is excited to move forward on a commitment we made several years ago to provide the community with a casual, convenient, and contemporary dining destination,” said senior vice president for finance and administration, Anne Marie Schettini-Lynch. “With the SAGE Café, we are not only delivering on our pledge, but complementing our other broad based efforts to beautify North Avenue, add to its commercial base and provide needed on-campus housing for our students.”

The initial design of SAGE Café incorporates a 3,000-square-foot contemporary intercontinental-cuisine-influenced restaurant with a 2,000-square-foot market and bakery. The vision for the establishment is a relaxed atmosphere with a gourmet-style convenience market, a high-quality bakery, gourmet coffee station, juice bar and a “grab- ‘n -go” area offering fresh food prepared by the Café. Because it will be located within commercial property, it will generate both property tax and sales tax dollars for the city.

Sage is known as the Mediterranean herb of wisdom. It literally translates to mean “wise one,” a play on words that is appropriate for a college setting.

If approved through the city planning process, SAGE Café will be located on the ground floor of the College’s new building, which is the latest show of campus improvements and beautification. Additional investments in North Avenue have been made by the College, such as providing funds to the City for roadway improvements on public property in the vicinity of the College, and providing financial assistance to property owners along North Avenue to improve the appearance of commercial storefronts. Through the College’s meal plan, more than $2 million in revenue is generated for the local participating vendors on North Avenue.

City officials, elected officials and college leaders have all recognized the impact the College has had in the New Rochelle community as the second largest employer in New Rochelle as well as the significance of the College’s contributions to the improvements along the North Avenue corridor.

Iona’s improvements come at a time when a recent study by a commission of independent colleges and universities shows that the College contributes as much as $258.5 million a year to the regional economy. The study, conducted on behalf of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) by the Center for Governmental Research, concluded that in 2015 the College’s spending translated into roughly $99.4 million in wages; was responsible for 1,850 local jobs and contributed $7.3 million in state income and sales tax revenues for state and local governments. Additionally, another $37 million is estimated to come from student and visitor spending.

The results showed that the impact of Iona College actually increased by $8 million from 2013 estimates by the same organizations. The economic impact is measured in Iona’s direct purchases of goods and services, as well as the spending by its employees, students and visitors. Further, last year students, faculty and staff of the College contributed more than 66,000 service hours to the region.

“Since its inception, Iona College has worked diligently to be a good and responsible neighbor to the people of New Rochelle and the surrounding communities,” said Iona President Joseph Nyre, Ph.D. “We are pleased with the progress we have made in recent years for our student body and community as a whole, and we will continue to be a vital part of the community at large and the regional economy.”

County Industrial Development Agency benefits provide critical support

Accessibility, a talented workforce and value. These are all reasons why Arch Street Communications (ASC), a boutique communications firm which has been in business for more than 20 years, has chosen Westchester to relocate its operation and hire additional staff. The move will be made possible thanks to sales tax benefits offered through Westchester’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA) and approved at a meeting of the IDA board this morning.

“We welcome ASC to Westchester and are glad that businesses large and small see all that Westchester has to offer,” said County Executive Robert P. Astorino. “We’ve got access to a talented workforce, where you can enjoy close proximity to New York City, but without the high rents.”

The county tax benefits will help offset ASC’s expenses to upgrade the 2,000 square-foot space in its new home at 31 Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains. The facility will include an open space art department, small group meeting areas and state-of-the-art telecom, videoconferencing and graphics equipment. Construction is to begin immediately and the company is expected to move in by July. ASC will bring its current staff of eight employees and plans to hire an addition three-to-five people within the first year.

“We needed to position our company in the place most advantageous to attract and retain the best possible talent to grow our business,” said Nora Madonick, president of ASC. “We also wanted to have greater access to potential clients and vendors to put ASC at a competitive advantage for contract opportunities. We did our homework and Westchester was the clear choice.”

ASC provides strategic communications and public engagement support to federal, state and regional agencies and specializes in transportation, safety, air quality, energy and environmental issues. The company’s first client was the Westchester County Department of Transportation and has since expanded its clientele to include dozens of key public authorities, commissions and agencies located throughout the northeast region.